Projectzings the operation during the crises

Its Real time action plan for managing the operation in Call center with different types of headcount during the critical and hard times, mainly I choose the holiday and specially Christmas time as common time need special type of managing to your operation.

Ahmed Hassan Elaydy1/25/2015

Index:

1. Introduction 2. Difference between operation and Project3. Why does we need to projectized the operation4. Different Type of Accounts in Call Center.

1- Accounts without Staffing issue or Call volume issue2- Accounts without staffing issue but they have Forecast issue 3- Accounts with Staffing issue but they have no Call volume issue4- Accounts with staffing issue and Call volume issue

5. How to manage each type of the mentioned accounts during the holiday time (Christmas)1- Absenteeism2- Adherence3- AHT4- Not ready time and ( Agents productivity and efficiency )5- Over time plan (OT)6- Call Drivers7- Target KPI's need to be Achieved ( Answered Call , SLV%, Abn%).

Introduction

As over two-thirds of call center operating costs are related to personnel, getting the right number of staff in place is critical, in terms of both service and cost. Workforce Management is one of primary fields of expertise, Especially Scheduling & Real Time team to improve their staffing and scheduling efficiencies and maximize agent's efficiency and productivity.

Workforce management is the process of getting the “just right” number of staff in place every hour to maximize service and minimize cost and it's one of the most important planning and management functions in the call center.

Also as I know that I am not the First one who is working as Workforce especially in Real time and Schedule but I believe that First mover have no competition and have the potential to become market leader. Unless the market is static and technological innovation is limited, the Risk of failure is high, moreover later entrants a recognized market and know what mistakes to avoid they stand to benefit most in rapidly change market, in which technological innovation is advanced. In order to gain an edge .

Either Be First, or Be Better.

Finally as one of my main professional value in my life you need to be lucky to be able to transform your relationship between your clients from servant relationship to partnership, so the first rule of luck in business is that you should persevere in doing the right the right thing. Opportunities will come to your way if you do.

Difference between operation and Project

First of all we will explore the difference between operation and project and the main purpose of that to make clear why we need to projectized the operation, especially in call center.

Many people get confused between these two, even though the difference between them is so clear. This is possibly because they share some characteristics, such as:

both are performed by people, both are planned, executed and controlled both have resource limitation

What is a Project?“A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” .PMP Guide

What is an Operation?Operations are the ongoing execution of activities that produce the same output, or provide a repetitive service.

Operations don’t produce anything new, but they are necessary to maintain and sustain the system.

Operations are used to run regular business models, achieve the goals of the business, and sustain the business.

The difference between the Project and the OperationProjects are unique and temporary (definitive beginning and ending), while Operations are ongoing and permanent with repetitive output.

Projects have a fixed budget; on the other hand Operations have to earn profit in order to run the business.

Projects are executed to start a new business objective and terminated when it is achieved, while Operational work does not produce anything new and it is ongoing.

Projects create a unique product, service, or result; Operations produce the same product, aim to earn profit, and keep the system running.

Why does we need to projectized the operation

Projectized operations of organizations or at least their selected divisions have recorded by now half a century’s experience of practice. Pioneered in the engineering, construction and defense industries, projectized operations of business have spread into virtually all branches of industry or public services. if seen on a global scale. Projectized operation of organizations refers to either the almost merely physical grouping of projects or project teams or more systemic management of total organizations or divisions dedicated to project operations in which traditional project management of a discrete project is a subset; organic management of a portfolio of projects in the non-project services industry to attain organizations’ strategic objectives; or managing tactical business operations by projects.

To date, projectized operations have pursued several or all of the following objectives to justify this business organizational model:

1) Accommodate discrete projects as a group in a certain organizational unit(s) for facilitated command and control by division management2) Assign priority of divisional management efforts based on Pareto’s law backed by statistics or rules of thumb for prevention of problems or profit growth on a group of projects in hand3) Facilitate project resource assignment and subsequent adjustment, especially human resources, among projects4) Propel the standardization of project operations methodologies in the form of company or division standard manuals, procedures and templates5) Enhance, with or without the help of a project management office, the project management capability level of the organization, many times referred to as the organizational project management maturity level, by setting objectives and measures of project success (Gendron, Wright, Crawford) 6) Introduce project management, to a varying degree, to traditionally operational types of business to cope with ever-escalating changes and competition in the marketplace.

Different Type of Accounts in Call Center.In this part I won't use the words but I will go for my favorite presentation method, I will present the different type of accounts in call centers simply in table.

Account Type Staffing Call Volume

Type 1Account have no staffing issue

( call routing based on best avail time, services level more than 85%

or Sales account)

No plans, promotions, outage or new devices, bill cycle affecting the call volume.

Type 2Account have no staffing issue

( call routing based on best avail time, services level more than 85%

or Sales account)

Client have a new promotions or outage will

increase call volume, or will have outage will affect the

call

Type 3Account have staffing issue due to

( high absenteeism, attrition, agents adherence or commitment

to their scheduled shift)

No plans, promotions, outage or new devices, bill cycle affecting the call volume.

Type 4

Account have staffing issue due to ( high absenteeism, attrition,

agents adherence or commitment to their scheduled shift)

Client have a new promotions or outage will

increase call volume, or will have outage will affect the

call

How to manage each type of the mentioned accounts during the holiday time (Christmas)

It's time to present how to manage each type of account based on the issue they have. But before it I need to confirm on main point already mentioned and focused by me in my previous document, that you have to set clear and realistic goals to your team cause it will add great value and will give you advantage in call center market and maximize your employees loyalty and productivity.

Mainly we will focus on major indictors that affect negatively on your agents performance and your KPI's. So I will consider (Absenteeism, Adherence, Attrition, AHT & Not ready time) as main factors can destroy all your monthly achievements with in short period (holiday time).

1- Absenteeism : Even if you have no staffing issue or call volume issue in your account but agent's absenteeism can destroy all your plans and achievements.Also unprofessional behavior from your agents and management regarding the absent hour will have same negative effect.

2- Adherence : Most call center employees assuming that adherence all about adhering your scheduled shift and your scheduled breaks.Correction: add to the above intraday activities. You can use not ready AUX if scheduling team not added it to your schedule.

3- Attrition: For me considering Attrition is call center cancer, suddenly without any notification will find all your success factors become a failure factors. Losing your talented resources to your competitors. start new hiring and training cycle with its circumstance and cost.

4- Average handling time(AHT): You can neutralize the negative affect of high volume of calls and account absenteeism without any additional cost otherwise you can maximize you benefit.

5- Not ready time: As well as AHT can save your account, Not ready time can destroy all your work with no mercy adding to that your client will be so frustrated cause of no staffing issue or high volume of calls meanwhile you can't deliver the expected service to his customers.

Account status Action plan

Type 1

- No absenteeism

- No adherence issue

- Attrition within the target

- AHT within the target

- Not ready within the shrinkage

1- You can launch a project within the holiday to reduce your AHT

2- AHT reduction will add new advantage to offer offline slots or team meeting

3- Focus on the FSR and C-sat4- Offer team meeting and quality session5- Offer operation and refreshment sessions6- You offer training role for the top achievers to act as

supervisor.(motivation plan)

Type 2

- No absenteeism

- No adherence issue

- Attrition within the target

- AHT within the target

- Not ready within the shrinkage

- High Volume of Calls

1- Focus on your AHT to give the ability to absorb the volume of calls without any additional cost.

2- Motivation plan (launching AHT competition in your account will a good motive to your employee and will add a new value.

3- Close monitoring to your agents not ready time will reduce the wasted time in coaching and allow you to focus on agents with low productivity

Type 3

- Your main problem will be in staffing due to:

- Absenteeism- Attrition- Shortage in

your staffing- Undergrad

agents with exams

1- Here you have to set your priority for planned vacation2- Although you don’t have call volume issue but your SLV%

will be affected by your staffing issue3- Your motivation plan here will be different than type 1

account as it will be launching day event like ( 60th day, pajama day and so one

4- Your motivation plan will be amazing motive to your agents and motive to other agents to avoid absenteeism

5- Again your magical tool will be reducing your AHT and not ready time

Type 4

- You issue will be shortage in your staffing

- Unplanned high volume of calls

1- To avoid shortage in your staffing apply OT plan maybe with double or triple payment

2- Use your fun team and launch daily or bi weekly events (you can use your floor monitors as screen during your

agent favorite games like Champions night)3- Sharing few information with your resource about the

current situation will add new advantage with your resource that we are sharing the responsibilities

4- Managing your not ready time will facilitate more agent to answer more calls

5- Reducing your AHT will reduce the abandon calls and save your SLV%

6- Your Top call drivers will give you the leadership in how to handle received calls within short time and your resource

will be ready to handle these calls7- Transparency with your client will be your key to avoid any

useless discussions during these hard times8- You team leader need to focus on FSR during these time to

avoid call regarding the same issue9- If your client has un reported outage, you need to keep him

updated to make sure that outage will not affect on SLV%

Finally maybe you have another action plans but the mentioned action plan is the most suitable action plan for the most and common accounts.

This action plan will make you ready for any crisis and your workforce resource will be ready to handle any situation not only by achieving the Account SLV% but they can maximize your benefit and affect on your GM.